Controversy over Chechen Aukh District resettlements continues in Daghestan

10th congress of Chechens of Daghestan on 25 November in Khasavyurt. (Saida Vagabova/OC Media)

A reset­tle­ment programme in the Russian Republic of Daghestan to restore the his­tor­i­cal­ly ethnic-Chechen Aukh District has continued to cause con­tro­ver­sy.

On 27 November, Abidi Ramazanov, an ethnic Lak, resumed his single-person protest in the central square of the Dagh­es­tani capital Makhachkala, demanding his house be returned to him.

Ramazanov told OC Media that in 2012, he returned to his family home in the Novolak­skiy District after living in Kam­chatskiy Krai for several decades to find it now belonged to a Chechen family.

The house had been trans­ferred to the family without his knowledge as part of a programme to restore property to Chechens deported to central Asia in 1944.

Ramazanov said he was not provided with new housing envisaged by the programme.

At the 10th congress of Chechens of Daghestan on 25 November in Khasavyurt, in the north of Daghestan, par­tic­i­pants called for the full restora­tion of Aukh District.

According to Dagh­es­tani daily Chernovik, Buvaysar Saytiyev, an ethnic Chechen MP rep­re­sent­ing Daghestan in the Russian Duma, said at the congress that recent changes in the lead­er­ship of Daghestan had given new hope to Dagh­es­tani Chechens that the issue would be resolved.

Abidi Ramazanov (Saida Vagabova/OC Media)

The Aukh resettlement programme

In 1944, the Chechen pop­u­la­tion of Daghestan’s Aukh District was deported to Central Asia, and the area was resettled by Lak people from other parts of Daghestan and renamed to the Novolak­skiy district. A part of Aukh District was also trans­ferred to the neigh­bour­ing Kazbekovsky District and populated by Avar people.

In 1956, Chechens began to return from the depor­ta­tions, and in 1991 the Dagh­es­tani author­i­ties decided to restore the Aukh District.

The decision gave almost 2,000 Chechen families sent to the Central Asia in the 1940s the right to the res­i­dences and lands that belonged to their relatives before the depor­ta­tions.

According to a 1993 ruling of the Council of Ministers of Daghestan, Laks who occupied the houses of deported Chechens were obliged to return this property to them, and in return would receive specially built houses and a lump sum payment for reset­tle­ment costs.

The programme to resettle Laks from the Novolak­skiy District and restore the Aukh District has been under imple­men­ta­tion for 27 years. The head of Daghestan, Vladimir Vasilyev, said in October 2017 that the programme was scheduled to be completed by 2025.

The programme has not been without con­tro­ver­sy, with a number of prominent Akka Chechens (Chechens from Daghestan) claiming that they do not wish for anyone to be resettled, only for the his­tor­i­cal­ly Chechen Aukh District to be restored.

Sale of Chechen houses

Khanpasha Sul­tan­biyev, from the Public Council of Akka Chechens of Daghestan, told OC Media that the gov­ern­ment com­mis­sion for the reset­tle­ment programme had already recorded that new houses had been handed over to Laks in the Kum­torkalin­sky District prior to 2013.

According to him, the com­mis­sion did not ensure the transfer of houses from Laks to Chechens before allo­cat­ing Laks new houses.

Sul­tan­biyev claimed that most of Laks who were given new houses did not transfer their old houses to Chechens who had returned from exile, as envisaged in the reset­tle­ment programme, but sold them.

‘The old houses of the Chechens were resold by residents of these villages to unrelated people several times’, Sul­tan­biyev said.

According to him, more than 300 houses that should have been trans­ferred to the Chechens were sold.

‘The Novolak­skiy District admin­is­tra­tion recog­nised that 156 houses were resold. They managed to return 16 house­holds to Chechens through the courts. But this has not resolved the situation’.

Sul­tan­biyev told OC Media that the problem was that instead of creating a body to oversee the transfer of houses by the Laks to the Chechens, Lak and Chechen families trans­ferred houses on an indi­vid­ual basis, directly from family to family.

‘This causes unnec­es­sary conflicts and scandals between the two nation­al­i­ties, which is unde­sir­able. Now it is necessary to either cancel the decrees reg­u­lat­ing the restora­tion of the Aukh District and the reset­tle­ment of the Lak people, or to amend them’, Sul­tan­biyev said.

He said that the reg­is­tra­tion of trans­ac­tions involving houses and land meant to be returned to Chechens should be pro­hib­it­ed.

‘Poor’ housing

Kamaludin Buday­chiyev, chairman of the executive committee of the Lak National Council, told OC Media that the Laks have refused to return property to Chechens because they have not received the lump sum reset­tle­ment payments promised to them under the programme.

Buday­chiyev confirmed that over 3,000 houses had already been built to resettle Laks but that these were of ‘poor quality’, and it was ‘impos­si­ble’ to live in them. Despite being built recently, he said that they had already fallen into disrepair and require restora­tion work.

The issue of several villages trans­ferred from the Aukh District to the Kazbekovsky District in the 1940s has also continued to be a flash­point.

In June 2017, a fight between a Chechen and Avar man in the village of Leninaul, in Kazbekovsky District threat­ened to spiral out of control, after Speaker of the Chechen Par­lia­ment, Magomed Daudov showed up in the village with his entourage.